Port Royal, PA -- August 18, 2024 -- The Living Legends Dream Race at Port Royal Speedway always brings a new storyline into the mix for the year. This year, it saw Mike Wagner break a 3 year winless streak, and Robbie Kendall pick up his first career 410 win at Port Royal Speedway.
Robbie Kendall would start on the front row of the first 25-lap A-main event alongside Anthony Macri with the latter taking the early race lead.
Macri would lead the opening 8 laps with Kendall in a further 2nd place position when the caution lights would come on for debris on the back straightaway. The caution would be called because the hood off of the 39M would blow off of his car and onto the racing surface.
This dilemma caused Macri to go to the pit area due to Port Royal Speedway rules not allowing for a driver to compete without the engine completely covered. This would give Kendall his first lead of the race.
Kendall would lead for a lap before Logan Wagner would overtake him on a restart with 16 laps remaining in the first corner of the race track.
Wagner, who was looking to pick up his 5th win of the season and his 4th in a row at Port Royal, would continue to lead for the next 13 laps. When coming down the front stretch at the 3 lap to go mark, Wagner would begin to lose power as he had run out of fuel.
Wagner would limp around the track until he drew the caution flag with 2 laps remaining which would bring out an open red flag for the field to refuel their sprint cars.
Kendall would inherit the lead once again, now with just 2 laps remaining and Justin Whittall right on his tail.
Whittall would pull alongside Kendall in both sets of corners over the final two laps, but couldn't mount enough speed to make the pass and Kendall would hold on for his first career win at Port Royal Speedway worth $12,500.
"We got a little lucky there with those two cars falling out," said Kendall on the front stretch between A-mains. "This is a place I always wanted to win at. I'm thankful I'm even racing."
During the break between the features, Kendall would draw a 6 pill to set the invert for the 2nd 25-lap A-main meaning Devon Borden and Mike Wagner would make up the front row with Kendall starting in 6th.
Wagner would get out to the lead off of the initial start and while fighting off restart challenges would lead all 25-laps in the 2nd feature event.
With 2 laps to go, he would start to run out of fuel to allow Justin Whittall to begin to close the nearly 2-second gap between the top two cars, but Wagner's machine would hold enough power to get him back to victory lane for the first time in 3 years.
"I'm glad to win. I think we should be winning more often, but we've been getting faster here lately so hopefully it will continue," said Wagner in victory lane following his $12,500 win.
Devon Borden and Logan Wagner would pick up Valley Supply hard charger honors during the two A-mains.
Kody Lehman and Dominic Melair would have the luck of the draw in winning the J&S Classics Warrior award in their respective feature events.
In USAC East Coast wingless sprint car competition, Christian Bruno would start on the front row and lead all 20 laps to claim victory for the first time in his career.
"I've always felt pretty comfortable here," Bruno explained in victory lane, "we had a good race the last time we were here. I felt like our car was just so good tonight."
Port Royal Speedway will be back in competition on August 23rd with the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series paying $10,000 to win, the Zimmerman Truck Repair Limited Late Models paying $6,000 to win and a $17,000 total purse, and the Mid-Atlantic Modifieds paying $5,000 to win.
For more information about upcoming races, visit www.portroyalspeedway.com or follow along on social media at Port Royal Speedway Trackside Media on Facebook or on Twitter/X @PortRoyalSpdway.
Photo Credit: Drew Pellman
410 Twin #1 25 Laps | 00:41:51.266
- 27S-Robbie Kendall[2]; 2. 67-Justin Whittall[6]; 3. 48-Danny Dietrich[7]; 4. 35-Austin Bishop[8]; 5. 55-Mike Wagner[5]; 6. 23-Devon Borden[18]; 7. 5R-Tyler Ross[14]; 8. 77-Michael Walter[10]; 9. 12D-Lance Dewease[21]; 10. 5-Dylan Cisney[19]; 11. 35K-Jake Karklin[11]; 12. 12-Blane Heimbach[24]; 13. 11-TJ Stutts[15]; 14. 69K-Logan Wagner[4]; 15. 33-Gerard McIntyre Jr[20]; 16. 45-Jeff Halligan[9]; 17. 55M-Domenic Melair[16]; 18. 47K-Kody Lehman[23]; 19. 95-Garrett Bard[13]; 20. 17B-Steve Buckwalter[12]; 21. 39M-Anthony Macri[1]; 22. 1-Chase Dietz[3]; 23. 6-Ryan Smith[17]; 24. 19R-Mark Smith[22]
410 Twin #2 25 Laps | 00:23:15.398
- 55-Mike Wagner[2]; 2. 67-Justin Whittall[5]; 3. 23-Devon Borden[1]; 4. 69K-Logan Wagner[14]; 5. 35-Austin Bishop[3]; 6. 27S-Robbie Kendall[6]; 7. 77-Michael Walter[8]; 8. 5R-Tyler Ross[7]; 9. 12-Blane Heimbach[12]; 10. 5-Dylan Cisney[10]; 11. 11-TJ Stutts[13]; 12. 33-Gerard McIntyre Jr[15]; 13. 35K-Jake Karklin[11]; 14. 47K-Kody Lehman[18]; 15. 95-Garrett Bard[19]; 16. 45-Jeff Halligan[16]; 17. 55M-Domenic Melair[17]; 18. 39M-Anthony Macri[21]; 19. 12D-Lance Dewease[9]; 20. 17B-Steve Buckwalter[20]; 21. 22-Bryn Gohn[25]; 22. 19R-Mark Smith[24]; 23. 48-Danny Dietrich[4]; 24. 6-Ryan Smith[23]; 25. (DNS) 1-Chase Dietz
- Brad Strawser on Aug 18, 2024
- Article Date: 8/17/2024 by Brad Strawser